Contents

Synopsis

The CSIs work with a team of FBI agents when one of them is brutally murdered, possibly in connection with a human trafficking case they are investigating. However, the more the case proceeds, it becomes increasingly apparent that all is not what it seems and that the agents are hiding something.

Plot

An FBI agent walks into a restroom at a gas station, when he is interrupted by another person entering the room. A cyclist later arrives, desperately needing to use the restroom, only to find it locked, and shortly afterwards a fight breaks out inside, ending with a scene of blood gushing from below the door. A large man steps out, whom the cyclist later describes as "a red Hulk". Raymond, Catherine and Brass arrive on the scene to find the agent brutally beaten, with his arm torn off. A chunk of arm flesh, later traced to the murderer, is also found at the scene.

The dead agent's colleagues, Agent Beckman and Agent Stanley, arrive at CSI and promise full cooperation for the investigation. They claim to have been operating an undercover sting operation to bust a prostitution ring, headed by a man known only as "The Fist".

The arm flesh is discovered to contain a specific cocktail of steroids, and the distributor is brought to CSI for questioning. Agent Beckman informs him that refusing to cooperate will result in a longer sentence, and the distributor names the man as Vinnie Mingus. Mingus is performing at a wrestling match later that evening, and LVPD moves in to arrest him. He tries to escape, and winds up shooting himself in the head with a gun that he believed was not loaded.

Agent Stanley is later found dead while posing as a prostitute; while Agent Beckman is initially present, he later leaves the scene for reasons unknown.

In an attempt to establish the identity of the dead agent, a DNA sample was sent to the FBI lab in Quantico, Virginia. However, the reply is that no such agent exists -- indeed, all three agents are actually fakes, with no federal credentials whatsoever. Mingus, however, had them figured out and thought the officers who tried to arrest him were fakes too. It is revealed that all three were residents at a halfway house. Beckman, whose real name is Miles, is found in the house, and claims to be working undercover. To maintain his "cover", Brass pretends to arrest him, and brings him outside. A car drives by and the driver starts shooting at Miles. Brass shoots back and winds up killing the driver. Miles is arrested and placed in a holding cell, where a (real) FBI agent informs Raymond that Miles will be jailed for at least 20 years for the various offences he has committed (such as impersonating a federal agent).

CSI figures out who the kingpin of the ring is, noting that he is wanted by Interpol for various trafficking-related offenses, and he is arrested.

Raymond sits down to talk with Miles, informing him that "The Fist" has been arrested, and gives him a copy of Don Quixote to read.